Pelosi rips ‘shameful’ Facebook behavior, accuses it of intentionally misleading users

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed tech giant Facebook on Thursday, accusing the social media company of abusing technology to mislead users and calling its behavior “shameful.”

“The Facebook business model is strictly to make money. They don’t care about the impact on children, they don’t care about truth, they don’t care about where this is all coming from, and they have said even if they know it’s not true they will print it,” Pelosi said at a press conference.

“I think they have been very abusive of the great opportunity that technology has given them,” she added. 

Pelosi’s comments came in response to a question about whether Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg or other tech executives, largely based in or near Pelosi’s San Francisco-area district, have too much power. Facebook has at least one office in Pelosi’s district. 

“All they want are their tax cuts and no antitrust action against them,” Pelosi said of Facebook. “And they schmooze this administration in that regard because so far that’s what they have received.”

Pelosi criticizes Facebook, which has an office in her district: “All they want are their tax cuts and no antitrust action against them and they schmooze this administration in that regard…They intend to be accomplices for misleading the American people” https://t.co/7DMcsOnniz pic.twitter.com/P6dI9a1LEl

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 16, 2020

The social media giant and and its CEO have come under fire in recent months, largely from Democrats, over the company’s ad policy as well as concerns over antitrust issues. 

Facebook has defended its policy to allow ads with false information as an effort to promote free speech on its platform.

“I think what they have said, very blatantly, very clearly, is that they intend to be accomplices for misleading the American people with money from god knows where,” Pelosi said Thursday.

“They have been very irresponsible … I think their behavior is shameful,” she added.

A spokesperson for Facebook was not immediately available for comment.

Pelosi has vocally criticized the social media giant after it refused to remove a doctored video of the Democratic leader last year that had been slowed down to make it sound like she was slurring her words.

Her remarks Thursday alluded to Facebook and other large tech companies paying lower taxes under the 2017 GOP-led tax overhaul.

Zuckerberg also recently confirmed he had a private meeting with Trump at the White House in October. The Facebook CEO told “CBS This Morning” last month that Trump did not “lobby” him during the meeting.